Natalie Curtis facts for kids
Natalie Curtis Burlin (born April 26, 1875, in New York City – died October 23, 1921, in Paris) was an American music expert. She studied the music of different cultures. This field is called ethnomusicology. Natalie Curtis was one of a small group of women doing important studies in North America. This was at the start of the 1900s. She is known for writing down and publishing traditional Native American music. She also published a four-book collection of African-American music. Natalie Curtis died young in 1921. She could not finish all her work or bring it together.
Contents
Her Work and Influence
After a trip to Arizona, Natalie Curtis became very interested in Native American music. She decided to spend her time studying it. Curtis had studied music at the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City. She also studied in France and Germany. There she learned from famous musicians like Ferruccio Busoni.
Helping Native American Cultures
Theodore Roosevelt was a family friend of Natalie Curtis. He was one of her biggest helpers. Curtis used Roosevelt's help to protect Native American cultures. Once, she even went to Roosevelt's house with a Mojave-Apache chief. She asked for tribal land rights. Roosevelt said that Curtis "... has done so very much to give Indian culture its proper position." He also wrote a short introduction for her book, The Indians' Book. In it, he talked about "the depth and dignity of Indian thought."
Her Career
Starting in 1903, Natalie Curtis worked from the Hopi reservation in Arizona. She wrote down music using an Edison cylinder recorder. She also used a pencil and paper. At that time, the government's Bureau of Indian Affairs had rules against this. They did not want Native Americans on reservations to speak their language. They also discouraged singing their music or wearing native clothes.
President Theodore Roosevelt was her friend. He stepped in to help her. Because of him, she could continue her important work. Roosevelt himself visited the Hopi reservation in 1913. He saw the Hopi flute and snake ceremonies. Curtis wrote about this visit in an article. It was called "Theodore Roosevelt in Hopi Land." It appeared in Outlook magazine in 1919.
Collecting Songs
In 1905, Curtis published The Songs of Ancient America. This book had three Pueblo corn-grinding songs. They came with piano music. She wrote about her work as a transcriber. She said, "I have in nowise changed the melodies... My one desire has been to let the Indian songs be heard as the Indians themselves sing them..."
In 1907, Curtis published The Indians’ Book. This was a collection of songs and stories from 18 different tribes. It had handwritten music notes. It also included artwork and photos. Most of the 200 songs were only written down as music notes. They did not have piano music. This book was used by her former teacher, Busoni. He created his Indian Fantasy from it. This piece for piano and orchestra was first played in 1915. The Philadelphia Orchestra performed it.
Around 1910, Curtis started to study African American music. She worked at the Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia. This college was started in 1868 to educate former slaves. A kind person named George Foster Peabody paid for this work. In 1911, she and David Mannes started the Colored Music Settlement School in New York. In 1912, she helped organize the first concert at Carnegie Hall. This concert featured black musicians. The Clef Club orchestra played, led by James Reese Europe.
In 1918 and 1919, Natalie Curtis (now Curtis Burlin) published four books. They were called Negro Folk-Songs. These books included spirituals and "work-and play-songs." She wrote the songs in four-part harmony. Composer Percy Grainger praised her work in 1918. Money from these books went to the Hampton Institute. Curtis also began to study the music of African tribes. In 1920, she published Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent. In this book, she wrote down a musical pattern. It is known as the standard pattern in music study. It is also called triple-pulse son clave in Afro-Latin music. In 1917, she married artist Paul Burlin. They moved to France. She died there in a traffic accident in 1921.
Her published work often appeared in magazines. These included The Southern Workman, The Craftsman, and The Outlook. She also published in general music magazines like Musical America. Reviews of her work appeared in these magazines. They also appeared in scholarly journals of the time.
Her Own Music
Natalie Curtis Burlin was one of a few American composers. She used Native American ideas in her own music. Other composers who did this include Charles Wakefield Cadman and Thurlow Lieurance. She wrote about 15 short, original pieces. Many of them were based on Native American or African American themes.
See also
In Spanish: Natalie Curtis para niños
